MUNCIE — Despite objections from neighbors, the transfer of the liquor license from a former Muncie strip club to another southside bar has been approved.

Two people objected to the request to transfer the liquor license from the former Joker's Wild topless bar to a new bar, Uggly's, during Thursday's meeting of the Delaware County Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

But ABC board members, after being reassured that the new establishment on South Walnut Street would not feature dancers, approved the transfer.

Jim Harty, who owned and operated the Joker's Wild on South Madison Street from the mid-1980s until it closed in 2015, is selling the bar's beer, wine and liquor license on contract to Melvin Davis, a former bartender at the Joker's. Davis plans to open Uggly's at 1101 S. Walnut St., where the Hendersons bar was formerly located.

In asking the ABC board to transfer the license, Harty, Davis and liquor license consultant Bruce McLaren answered questions from the board as well as two people who were against the transfer.

Emily Carpenter said she didn't object to a bar but did not want a strip club in the area.

"I know they said it would not be a strip club, but what's stopping them?" Carpenter asked. She cited an ice cream shop and bus stop within a couple of blocks. "Kids use this route."

Andrew Draper, pastor of Urban Light Community Church, objected to the transfer and said that based on the church's interaction with the Dream Club, another former Madison Street topless bar, such businesses are "a public nuisance."

"It's not going to be a strip club," Harty responded and cited local prohibitions against adult entertainment within 500 feet of a residential area.

McLaren said that in Muncie's economy, "the days of strip clubs are gone. There's not enough business to support it."

Davis, who called himself general manager of Uggly's, said he was investing $250,000 in starting Uggly's, which was described as a sports bar with food that also would offer country music and a mechanical bull.

After some discussion of drug use among dancers at the former Joker's Wild, Davis said he would not tolerate any unlawful activity at Uggly's.

ABC board president Tom Simpson noted that the board had not received complaints about the Joker's Wild during its time before the board approved the liquor license transfer.

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.